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Open Source for the Enterprise

What started as an idea to create a framework to integrate a web content management platform (Drupal) with an enterprise content management application (Alfresco) quickly became much more than just getting two technologies to work together. To foster true alignment between these software products we found that bringing together the companies behind those products, Acquia and Alfresco, was critical to its success. This became osCaddie (formerly Canopy), our “Open Source for the Enterprise Initiative,” and is now extending beyond the Acquia and Alfresco success to include Mulesoft and HTML5.

We’ve now termed the service offerings under this initiative, which are based on implementation and integration of open source technologies, osCaddie. The overarching effort by Appnovation and its key partners (Acquia, Alfresco, MuleSoft & Google) to further open source adoption, implementation and integration within the enterprise resides under osCaddie, our Open Source for the Enterprise Initiative.

Key Pillars

Appnovation’s “Open Source for the Enterprise Initiative” is based on four key pillars. First and foremost, it involves the identification and selection of the best of breed, proven and widely used open source technologies that are available for enterprise-level entities to adopt, implement and integrate into their current IT architecture. Secondly, The Open Source for the Enterprise Initiative involves the support of the commercial entities behind those technologies to not only align with the needs of customers, but also with one another, to further the movement to open source. Next, the Initiative places a high value, as do most open source technologies, on having community involvement to facilitate the sharing of best practices, code and experiences which is accomplished through regular community councils and an ever growing community site. Lastly, the Initiative requires expertise to execute and implement a company's open source strategy, architecture and infrastructure, which Appnovation has now packaged into a solution for enterprise level customers to purchase called osCaddie.

osCaddie

Open Source Caddie is “THE GO TO Service” for enterprise customers looking to move to an open source stack of technologies. While currently there is no single open source solution to truly satisfy a full and reliable Enterprise technology stack, Open Source Caddie is meant to be the bridge to get companies closer to that goal by integrating open source technologies while also allowing for integration with commercial, proprietary and legacy systems. In addition to implementation and integration by Appnovation’s open source experts, Open Source Caddie comes with dedicated expert time which includes quarterly architecture reviews and custom integration support along with access to the Open Source Caddie knowledge base and forums.

Enterprise clients who are looking to adopt, implement and integrate open source into their technology environment can view a full list of packages, along with pricing, to see what would work best for an entities particular needs. We also encourage potential customers to contact Appnovation either via email or form to set up a time to speak with an OSCaddie Solutions Expert to further discuss the open source technologies being considered, best options for implementation and/or integrations currently needed or wanted.

Background & Formation

Recognizing a need to bring together two leading open source platforms, Appnovation set about creating their first osCaddie service offering; a set of tools and services to easily manage theintegration of Drupal and Alfresco. This evolved into osCaddie, our Open Source for the Enterprise Initiative, to bring together the companies behind technologies and eventually other open source technologies to enable open source solutions for enterprise customers.

In 2012 after numerous Enterprise implementations, Appnovation’s implementation of osCaddie at Mercy Health was recognized as “Solution of the Year” by Alfresco software. osCaddie was recognized for its uniqueness and ease of implementation in helping clients combine the Alfresco suite of products with other leading open source technologies such as Drupal. Building on the success of osCaddie , in 2013 Appnovation, with the support of their partners Acquia, Alfresco and Mulesoft launched the Open Source Initiative, now known as “The Open Source for the Enterprise Initiative” which has the goal of working with best in breed Commercial open source technologies to “Enable Open Source in the Enterprise”.

Current Technologies Involved

Drupal is an open source web content management system with thousands of modules available and supported by a large developer community.

Alfresco is an open source enterprise class, rich document repository system with amazing out of the box features like versioning and workflow. It affords great backend records management capabilities and a Lucene (“Google like”) search document indexer.

MuleSoft allows for ease of creating high-performance, multi-protocol connections involving diverse and varied systems and/or services. It also allows for integration with other open source technologies as well as non open source technologies.

HTML5 provides the benefits of a variety of powerful frameworks such as Sproutcore, Ember, Sencha, Cross-platform mobile and web delivery (web, tablet, smartphone).

How does Appnovation choose technologies for osCaddie and The Open Source in the Enterprise Initiative?

Open Source industry leaders

Commercially available Enterprise class support

Companies that are predictable and aligned with the open source movement

Strong partner and development communities

The Story of the osCaddie

Recognizing a need to bring together two leading open source platforms, Appnovation set about creating a set of tools and services to easily manage the integration of Drupal and Alfresco.

Why Drupal?

Drupal is an open source web content management system with thousands of modules available supported by a large developer community. It leaves a lightweight webserver footprint, is highly scalable and expandable and has a user-friendly interface for non-technical users.

Why Alfresco?

Alfresco is an open source enterprise class rich document repository system with amazing out of the box features like Versioning and Document. It affords great backend records management capabilities and a Lucene (“Google like”) search document indexer. Alfresco supports open standards like CMIS, Web Services, Rest APIs, webdav, CIFS, JSON, JSR 168, RSS, Atom and more.

How these two technologies in osCaddie work together:

Content created within Alfresco can be pushed to Drupal and mapped to specific node types. This is done through the upload function using html files in the Alfresco repository.

Content created in Drupal can also be pushed and replicated within the Alfresco repository. Webscripts grab the data and create the node from a preregistered model. Along with content, metadata is replicated across the two systems.

Communication between Alfresco and Drupal are done using a custom RESTful API using JSON.

Data is replicated across both systems and each platform functions as intended out of the box.

Drupal as the front-end provides Alfresco with a highly flexible presentation layer that can be used to build websites that would be more or less impossible with Alfresco alone.

Alfresco compliments Drupal by providing a feature rich UI for managing web assets, as well as providing full document and knowledge management for entire organizations.

There are many options in terms of scaling the application, for example you can have a low end Alfresco implementation combined with a high scale large volume Drupal front-end.

Simple JSON REST API integrates easily into both Alfresco and Drupal.

What other capabilities have been added to osCaddie

Building on the success of integrating Drupal and Alfresco, in 2011 Appnovation brought the highly popular and cutting edge technology of HTML5 into the mix. By adding HTML5, to the osCaddie initiative, Appnovation was able to add new dynamic features and functionality as well as provide easy and integrated mobile access for the other technologies.

Adding HTML5

Provides the benefits of a variety of powerful frameworks such as Sproutcore, Ember, Sencha, etc

Cross-platform mobile and web delivery (web, tablet, smartphone)

Whole host of new features such as: richer multimedia experience, 3D graphics, usage of offline storage, advanced client-server communication, incredible performance and much much more

In 2012, osCaddie was recognized as “Solution of the Year” by Alfresco Software for its uniqueness and ease of implementation in helping clients combine the Alfresco suite of products with other leading open source technologies.

Moving onto 2013, a few more open source technologies have been added to the mix, bringing even more features and functionality to osCaddie. The additions of leading open source technologies MuleSoft, Hadoop and MongoDB now give osCaddie much more possibilities to integrate with other open source (MuleSoft Drupal integration and MuleSoft Alfresco integration) and non open source technologies alike and the power to provide Big Data solutions.

Hadoop & MongoDB

Options for handling massive amounts of data

Business analytics, interactive reporting, forecasting, predictive modeling, data mining and so much more

osCaddie is a proven service but at the same time a work in progress. Appnovation maintains a strong commitment to not only integrate proven open source technologies, but to also bring the companies behind those technologies together to support the effort and create the optimal experience for clients and their users.

Would you like to learn more about osCaddie, what it can do for your organization and/or how much it would cost? Our osCaddie experts are available to answer any question you may have about enabling open source in your environment.

Download the Module

The module for the Drupal Alfresco integration development version can be downloaded in our Resources section under Code Snippets. Get started with the integration of two base components that osCaddie was founded on. If you have Drupal & Alfresco, why not get them working together.

Experts at Integrations

As osCaddie has grown to include more technologies, Appnovation’s skill and experience at providing custom integrations has as well. Not only can we get the open source components working together, but we can also get them working seamlessly with other parts of your technology stack.

Transparent, Collaborative & Communicative

We give you complete visibility from day one of your osCaddie project and, we work with you to shape the right engagement model, delivery method and custom solution to meet your unique needs. Our communication lines are always open throughout your engagement via email, phone, chat, Skype, and Google Hangout.

Customer Satisfaction

We take customer satisfaction seriously, providing you a dedicated account manager and project manager to make sure all aspects of your engagement with us run smoothly. We ask you to tell us how we did at the end of your project, and the results go directly to our CEO.